"Is that a kringle?" Jeannie asked, her eyes lighting up. She was more than happy to give me the scoop on what looked to me to be a garden-variety danish. Turns out I was half-right: the flaky, filled pastry ring is Danish, but it's called a Kringle. Who knew?

The pastry was flaky and tender, with a raspberry-cream cheese filling. Jeannie speculated that it might be an authentic Racine Kringle, till we looked on the bottom of the container and saw that it was from Kroger's. Never mind -- staffers kept sneaking back to the kringle, for repeat slices of the treat.

Of course, it was so delicious that it made me want to taste an official Racine Kringle. So I gathered a bunch of staffers in my office and we hit the web site to choose flavors. We settled on a pecan kringle, a raspberry kringle, and a cheese kringle.

And as we waited for the kringles to arrive in the mail in the days that followed, we discussed other regional treats. For example, the black and white cookie, a decidedly metro-New York dessert that even Cari, who grew up in Southern New Jersey, was unfamiliar with for much of her life. I boasted that the best-ever black and white cookies can be found at the Springfield, NJ Bagels-4-U store, but I need to put my money where my mouth is and bring in a bunch for the office (that will be another post).

The kringles finally arrived and they were scrumptious. Flaky, sweet, addictive.